The present invention refers to a transport device for athletic equipment of the type having a transport container which is movable over the ground and which holds at least a portion of athletic equipment therein.
Upon engagement in various sports it is necessary to transport heavy and/or bulky articles of athletic equipment over long distances. In order to facilitate the transportation of this athletic equipment a large number of transport devices have been developed which are generally intended specially for one given type of sport.
Thus, for instance, for the transportation of skis there are known ski transport devices (Federal Republic of Germany OS No. 3 439 278) which consist of a supporting member into which the ends of the skis, placed flat against each other, can be clamped. The supporting member is provided on one side with slide skids and on the opposite side with rollers so that the ends of the skis can slide or roll on smooth ground.
A transport device for ski equipment is also known (U.S. Pat. No. 4,358,137) in which the transport container is formed by a chassis provided with two wheels, to which chassis there is fastened the lower end of a transport bag which can be rolled up and be closed by a slide fastener along one longitudinal side. Carrying loops are attached to the transport bag which make it possible for the user to pull or push the chassis. The chassis furthermore has an insertion opening for the lower ends of the skis into which the skis can be loosely inserted and be surrounded as a whole by the transport bag within which the ski boots and possibly also the ski poles can be arranged. The manufacture of this known transport device is relatively expensive and furthermore the moving of this known transport device over the surface of the ground is relatively difficult since the holding grips fastened to the transport bag do not have a rigid attachment to the chassis. Furthermore, movement of this transport device over soft snow is not possible since in such case the wheels sink in and prevent movement.
There is also known a transport device for golf equipment (Federal Republic of Germany OS No. 2 528 968) in which a pull or push rod is surrounded by ring-shaped holding elements for the golf clubs and which bears at its lower end removable wheels for the rolling of the transport device. Although this transport device is also collapsible after removal of the wheels and a part of the pull rod, it takes up a considerable amount of space, which is all the more troublesome since this transport device, in the same way as all the transport devices described above, is usable only for one specific sport and thus a number of them must be present alongside of each other if different sports are engaged in.